How BodyMedia Is Making Fitness Data Personal

John "Ivo" Stivoric
Cofounder, CTO, and VP of New Products
BodyMedia
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Making It Personal

Ivo Stivoric, 38, has developed wearable fitness sensors for clinical patients for more than a decade. Responding to demand, BodyMedia introduced its GoWear fit line for consumers last year.

"Doctors will tell you to eat better and exercise more, but they're not specialists in behavior modification. If you're on a treadmill, that's the only time you have a dashboard that's telling you concrete numbers. We provide people with dashboards for their bodies. On average, our users wear them for 16 hours a day.

Right now, we're just feeding you the data so you can make your own conclusions. Over time, fitness monitors will be able to feed back more proactive, personalized content. Imagine getting a message that the last time you went a certain numbers of days with little sleep, you got sick. We could even lower your home thermostat after sensing when you've fallen asleep. We're just now scratching the surface of what's possible."